No Guinness Record For Route 166 Road Project, Which Drags On

TOMS RIVER, NJ — It's official: The construction project that has disrupted Route 166 from Route 37 to Old Freehold Road will not be in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The application submitted in December by Larry Schuster of Schuster's Car Wash nominating the project as "the slowest quarter-mile of road construction ever" was officially turned down by the Guinness records management team.

"Unfortunately, after thoroughly reviewing your application with members of our research team, we are afraid to say that we cannot accept your proposal as a Guinness World Records title," an email from Guinness personnel to Schuster said.

"While we certainly do not underestimate your proposal, we think that it is a little too specialised for a body of reference as general as Guinness World Records. There are construction projects that have taken hundreds of years to finish. As such, we would not subcategorise based on what type of construction is being done," the email said.

Schuster submitted the proposal for record consideration in December to try to inject some humor into a situation that has taken a toll on the businesses that line that stretch of Route 166. The initial traffic shifts happened March 28, 2016, and as of Thursday, the traffic has been disrupted for 1,061 days, as part of the larger project that extended to Highland Parkway on the south side of Route 37.

Schuster has not been the only one trying to find humor. Corinne Jewelers, next door the car wash, has changed its electronic message at various points along the way, highlighting the owners' frustration with the slow progress.

During the Christmas holiday shopping season, the message read: "INCONVENIENTLY LOCATED BUT WE PROMISE WE ARE WORTH THE TROUBLE."

State Department of Transportation officials told WOBM-FM that the project will be completed this spring, and that the remaining work involves paving.

The DOT has repeatedly noted that the 2016 three-month shutdown of road projects across the state by then-Gov. Chris Christie in the battle over raising the gasoline tax to fund the Transportation Trust Fund put the roadwork significantly behind when utility work had to be delayed as a result.

But there have been unexplained delays and gaps in the work as well. A notice late in November about overnight traffic changes came after work by the contractor, New Prince Construction, had ceased for five weeks. An NJDOT spokesman was unable to provide information on what caused the lack of work; New Prince also is the contractor on a Route 71 project in Monmouth County. In December, officials said the project would be completed this winter.

Schuster said despite claims from NJDOT spokespeople, he and other business owners have not been kept up to date during the course of the project.

"I someday want to meet the person from the state that keeps saying they are informing us," he said. "They have not had any contact with Ryan (the owner of Corinne Jewelers) or myself at all."

The groundhog said spring will be here in less than three weeks. Hopefully the end of the road work will be as well.

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